The Relationship among Islam and Human Rights

Human rights are basic to humanity. They are supposed apply to all people everywhere. Though in our modern society, we acknowledge the importance of human rights, it took a long time for mankind to set down the human rights that we all deserve and to reach to where we are now. In this essay, the focus will be on how much Christian teachings and traditions influenced the creation of human rights. It’s possible to see the influence based on different written laws made toward creation of equal rights. Such as, the US’s “Declaration of Independence”, the French “Declaration of the Rights of Man” or the UN’s Declaration of the Human Rights. Christianity’s biblical notions support many of the articles found in those declarations. Christian teachings had an overall significant impact on the development of modern human right.

Yet inequalities may not be the case for women in more westernized nations as they receive greater freedom (60). This is where the great diversity between modernist Muslim’s and conservative Muslim’s come in. Modernist Muslims argue genuine Islam is compatible with modern west society and political ideas such as democracy and the equality of women. The views of women in society are supported by revelations of the prophet Mohammed. On the other hand we have conservative Muslims where they believe in

This article, by Elizabeth Segran explores how many women faced inequality in the Islamic world but started to acquire their power through the Qur'an and their religion. The author states “For decades many women believed they had to choose between their Muslim identity and their belief in gender equality so they made a global movement called Musawah, which means equality”(1). This movement is powered by the ideals that Islam does not favor men as many have thought to be the case. However, because patriarchy has had a strong stance in Muslim countries these females believe it is due to the way they have interpreted and read Islamic texts. As we have learned in this course so far, there are numerous ways to interpret Islamic texts. It just so happens that gender has a great effect on how it is understood by individuals.

In the past decade, Islam has been viewed as a male dominant religion. Many people in the west proclaim that Muslim women are forced to wear and do things out of their own will and, therefore, the western society perceives Muslim women as a symbol of oppression. The main subject of controversy is the Islamic veil. In addition, the west proclaims Islam to be a sexist religion as the Muslim women are not held equal to men including a limited amount of women’s rights in Islam. In the Deepa Kumar article, Kumar exposes what the western countries try and have done to uphold women’s rights. The western countries compare the Muslim dominated countries to themselves which results in a clash of civilization. This is occurs as the western culture and values do not equate with the culture and values the Muslim dominated countries possess. In addition, France had banned the hijab on a similar argument as other western countries as they attempt to “liberate” Muslim women. In contrast, these rulings of “liberation” have backlashed on the societies affected. Deepa Kumar states that neither Afghan nor French women have benefited from the attempt of “liberation” but, in fact, made it worse. These controversies of “oppressed” Muslim women gave the west a humble chance to rescue the victims.

he second article being looked at is ‘Muslim Women’s Quest for Equality: Between Islamic Law and Feminism’ by author Ziba Mir-Hosseini. This article looks at the plight of women in both the Middle East and Southwest Asia and looks the the distinction between sharia law and fiqh. Mir-Hosseini argues that Muslim women will be treated as second class citizens as long as patriarchy is justified and upheld in the name of Islam (pg.629). Both the invasion of Iran and Afghanistan were justified on the basis that Muslims were in need of “freedom” and “democracy”. By doing this is has brought upon many internal and external struggles. Muslims in these countries see the “neo imperialist intervention as a direct assault on their religion” (pg. 631). Further giving more reason to legitimize the power of radical Islamists such as Al-Qaeda.

This type of primary source is a written document by Jonathan Lyons in which he describes Islam through western eyes. In Islam Through Western Eyes, Jonathan Lyons unloads Western propensities for contemplating Islam, directing a watchful examination of the West's great totalizing story crosswise over one thousand years of history. He watches the talk's destructive consequences for the sociologies, including human science, legislative issues, theory, religious philosophy, worldwide relations, security studies, and human rights grant. He takes after its influence on research, speeches, political system, and government approach, keeping the West from reacting viably to its most noteworthy twenty-first-century challenges: the ascent of Islamic power, the rise of religious savagery, and the growing pressure between built up social qualities and multicultural rights among Muslim foreigner populaces.

Alaa Morab, a Muslim woman believes, “the misrepresentation and misuse and manipulation of religious scripture, has influenced our social and cultural norms, our laws, our daily lives to a point where we sometimes don’t recognize it”. Throughout all the rules being thrown around, people do not realize what is really happening. Muslim women are affected as well as an individual’s everyday life. Within the world, “it is a reality that millions of women are suffering and oppressed under religious laws and Islamic governments” (Alaa Murabit). Although it is women across the world, it is mainly focused in the Middle East which makes people think that is the only location where it is happening.

The concept of human rights has become ambiguous, with very little agreement regarding its meaning and application internationally. The concept of human rights could be deemed as what Gallie termed as “an essentially contested concept.” This argues that when it comes to certain concepts there is just simply no one clearly definable general use that is widely agreed on. There are a variety of elements and words that can be used to describe the concepts of human

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights possesses thirty total laws of which each individual living on this Earth has a right to have. However, all throughout history, those specific rights have been violated by others. The “Right to Equality”, the “Freedom from Discrimination”, the “Freedom from Torture and Degrading Treatment”, and the rest, are contravened daily. All of these rights are supposedly protected by the thirtieth right: “No One Can Take Away Your Human Rights”. Yet, this law is the most disobeyed in the world. Our human rights are taken away from us all the time; especially in the United States and Afghanistan. White dominance during the Civil Rights movement and the unjust rule of the Taliban are two of the biggest violators of the final right in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Gender inequalities, which have become more and more dominant in societies, have affected women all across the world. In relation to Middle Eastern countries, there have been rules that women must oblige by constituted along with their religion. Whereas in the United States religion isn’t as dominant, but rather the thoughts and gender microaggressions when compared to male counter-parts are more significant. The misogyny in both regions consists of the deprivation of gender rights that are given by their government, such as the Women’s Suffrage movement in the U.S. Middle Eastern countries have a similarity in which the Quran acts as the law towards Muslim women. Even though there have been acts like the Equal Pay Act created in the U.S, the

For a long time, Arabic’s women have been seen as downtrodden people on a male chauvinist community, but not always were like that. In pre-Islamic Arabia, women's status varied widely according to laws and cultural norms of the tribes in which they lived. For example, in the prosperous southern region of the Arabian Peninsula the religious edicts of Christianity and Judaism held sway among the Sabians and Himyarites. In other places such as the city of Makkah (Mecca) -- where the prophet of Islam, Muhammad, was born—a tribal set of rights was in place. The Qur’an, which is from century VII, is highly specific as to women’s rights and men’s rights as an unbroken human, independent and believer of freedom.

The Middle East is often viewed homogeneously as a wasteland for women’s rights, and although some regions are making strides towards equality, others seem to be left in the Dark Ages. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, founded in 1932, is often noted as one of the most oppressive countries in this region in the name of women’s equality. It can be seen, however, that the ideology of this region has predated the founding of the country and even the birth of Islam. The cultural norms of the Arabian Peninsula, Islamic faith affirming these standards, and the legislative support of these values have led to the degradation of Saudi women’s rights.

The doctrine of human rights were created to protect every single human regardless of race, gender, sex, nationality, sexual orientation and other differences. It is based on human dignity and the belief that no one has the right to take this away from another human being. The doctrine states that every ‘man’ has inalienable rights of equality, but is this true? Are human rights universal? Whether human rights are universal has been debated for decades. There have been individuals and even countries that oppose the idea that human rights are for everybody. This argument shall be investigated in this essay, by: exploring definitions and history on human rights, debating on whether it is universal while providing examples and background

One is left with many questions to answer when she/he tries to figure out if there exists any relationship between Sharia Law and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) human rights record. The world has experienced a series of killings in the name of religion and political interests that have given the human rights watch a hard task to take. Most human rights violations are rampant in certain regions of the world dominated by the Islamic religion. The world has also experienced wars between Islamic and non-Islamic states. In order to get to the root cause of human rights violations, it is important to understand what the Sharia law is and the human rights reports on the ISIS.

“All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.” These opening words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights express a concept of man which underpins the framework of human rights embodied in the Universal Declaration and the two international covenants of Human Rights. Western political traditions is a concept that it derives from, is in harmony with moral and social teachings to be found in many other traditions and patterns of belief.